Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt has lost a legal aid battle to defend a multi-million pound claim brought against him by Omagh bomb relatives.
He had been granted the money for the High Court case, but it was set aside after the Legal Services Commission ruled he had not told the truth in his application.

On Friday, a judge said the decision to withhold the estimated Â£1m for his defence was based on good reasons and was not wrong in law.

Twenty-nine men, women and children died and hundreds were injured when the Real IRA detonated a car bomb in Omagh on 15 August 1998.

It is clear the judge hearing the civil claim has a vital role to play in ensuring a fair trial

Mr Justice Girvan

There will be no convictions for murder because it is not a criminal case, but the families could be awarded damages against the men they accuse.

In August 2003, McKevitt, 54, was jailed for 20 years in the Republic of Ireland after being found guilty of directing terrorism and membership of an illegal organisation.

In a reserved judgement at the High Court in Belfast on Friday, Mr Justice Girvan referred to case law and said it was clear the judge hearing the civil claim had a vital role to play in ensuring a fair trial.

If he considered that it was in the interests of a fair trial that the defendant receive legal aid, he could give a ruling to that effect, he said.

Daly, McKevitt, Campbell and Murphy are serving sentences in the Irish Republic for Real IRA membership.

Murphy, a Dundalk-based builder and publican, was sentenced to 14 years in January 2002 for plotting the Omagh attack.

Campbell was jailed for five years in October 2001.

Solicitors acting for the victims' group served writs on the five suspects in 2002.

Almost certainly they don't have 14 million however this is still an excellent strategy. A criminal action is out of the question so a civil action it is. Presumably upon losing whatever money, property, assets etc should be pursued. The Real IRA pr*cks have civil convictions against them and failure to pay could lead to a criminal charge. Its better than nothing.

i think when you have lost close relatives, you wouldn't care that much to be honest and i doubt the IRA will try to intimidate them as they already are marginlised by their own community. i have been to Omagh it a nice town.

Almost certainly they don't have 14 million however this is still an excellent strategy. A criminal action is out of the question so a civil action it is. Presumably upon losing whatever money, property, assets etc should be pursued. The Real IRA pr*cks have civil convictions against them and failure to pay could lead to a criminal charge. Its better than nothing.

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As I understand it......
Once the civil action begins there's the right to ask for evidence and papers that wouldn't be available otherwise.
The CPS can then examine them and decided if it has a sound bases for a higher court prosecution.
During all civil cases the main aim is two fold,
1. To collate evidence that could see the transfer to a higher court that can impose a sentence of incarceration, and therefore a criminal conviction on the individual.
2. To highlight the accused to open him to public examination.
Money isn't really the point, chances are they will NEVER receive the money, unless this animal wins the lotto and even then they would have to ask a court to arrest those monies.
The real thing here is he has had his right to legal aide withdrawn, and the law likes to be paid, so while he might pay his victims at Â£5 a week for time immemorial; the legal system will bankrupt him and make his life a living hell.
Shame.